Year end wrap up – episode 204

Valerie George (0:00)

Hi, I'm Valerie and you're listening to The Beauty Brains.

Welcome to The Beauty Brains, a show where real scientists answer your beauty questions and give you an insider's look at the beauty product industry. This is episode 204, and our last one for the year. I'm your host, Valerie George, and joining me today is fellow cosmetic chemist, and the man with the longest juggling streak in the world, Perry Romanowski.

Perry Romanowski (0:33)

Hey, Valerie! Boy, that's quite a script you've come up with.

Valerie George (0:38)

He made me say it!

Perry Romanowski (0:42)

Well, I do have the longest juggling streak in the world. 4,063 days today.

Valerie George (0:50)

Wow, congratulations.

Perry Romanowski (0:51)

Yeah, thank you.

Valerie George (0:53)

Yeah, well, guys, listening to the show, we're gonna change up things a little bit today into our first ever year-end review of the show. And that's not because it's our first year end together with Perry and I.

I don't think ever it's ever been done on the show.

Perry Romanowski (1:10)

No, I know, I don't think previously we have ever done a year-end review. And why haven't we? We should, this is a new thing, right?

Valerie George (1:18)

Yeah, let's take a look back into 2019, the last year of the decade.

Let's look at the beauty industry, see what happened, reflect on it, and then make some predictions about where we think the industry is going to go in the new year. And I think we'll close it up with some resolutions.

Perry Romanowski (1:35)

Yeah, but first, the year's coming to an end, the holiday's over. What are you up to right now, Valerie?

Valerie George (1:41)

Well, I just wrapped up a vacation in Palm Springs.

My husband, Mr. Cosmetic Chemist, and I, we typically do a year-end vacation just because I work so hard throughout the year, and he gets the last part of the year off. So I take it to decompress, I put up an out of office message that I'm not reading nor responding to emails.

Perry Romanowski (2:01)

Wow, that's nice.

Valerie George (2:04)

Yeah, it's a first. Usually I'm like, oh, I'll check, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, nope, didn't do it. Sorry.

Perry Romanowski (2:10)

You put your phone in the glove box and you don't even look at it?

Valerie George (2:15)

Well, that's not true. But I have to do all Mr. Cosmetic Chemist is still sleeping because he gets really angry. But for the most part, I just make sure there are no emergencies.

And because I do have to be in touch with manufacturing, my employees are also typically on vacation this time of year. So I just peek in and I delete all of the non-essential emails, so I feel better coming back for the new year.

Perry Romanowski (2:41)

You know, it's so weird with email, how when it starts to build up, it's just there's more stress and more stress. You know, like, I gotta get down to inbox zero.

But it would be so nice if somebody just did my emails for me.

Valerie George (2:55)

I think that's called a personal assistant, and it could be yours if you needed it.

Perry Romanowski (3:00)

I think that's my first New Year's resolution. I need a personal assistant.

Valerie George (3:05)

I think that's a New Year's wish, right?

Perry Romanowski (3:08)

Yeah, indeed, indeed. You know, Palm Springs, Palm Springs always, in my mind, I've never actually been there, but in my mind, it always seemed like a nice place on the water, but it's like the desert.

Valerie George (3:21)

Definitely not on the water. It's about 100 miles east of Los Angeles, so you're about 140 miles from the water.

Perry Romanowski (3:30)

So it's like a desert, right?

Valerie George (3:32)

It is in the desert, near the Mojave Desert, and it actually borders a set of mountains as well. So you could go up on this tram to the top of the mountains, there's snow, and, oh, this time of year, there's snow.

And it's really just kind of a resort community where it's in the middle of nowhere, and 100 years ago, people from LA were like, oh, we need to get out of LA, and they went to this resort area, and it really has had quite a resurgence in the last 10 years. It's pretty cool.

Perry Romanowski (4:04)

Does it have enough water?

Valerie George (4:06)

I think it has to be transferred in. I don't think intrinsically that area has a lot of water.

Perry Romanowski (4:11)

So like underwater aquifer or anything?

Valerie George (4:14)

Yeah, it's interesting, it's called Palm Springs. Yeah.